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Murder At Sea Aboard A Carnival Cruise To Mexico and a liner voyage aboard Union Castle Lines in the 1947 – Where are re-runs of The Love Boat when you need them?

July 18, 2009 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

Cruising the Past and Cruise Ship History. Murder At Sea Aboard A Carnival Cruise To Mexico and another aboard Union Castle Lines in the 1947 – Where are re-runs of The Love Boat when you need them?

Murders aboard cruise ships and liners are nothing new. This one happened last week on Carnival and another one took place aboard a Union Castle decades ago.

Where are re-runs of The Love Boat when you most need them? Cruise travelers these days have never had it so difficult, what with the threat of possible Norovirus and Swine Flu outbreaks, not to mention the occasional occurrence of people mysteriously falling overboard. The latest news, that a man has stabbed his wife to death this week while onboard the Carnival ship Elation, doesn’t threaten the whole ship but it does make for one creepy cruise. [Read more...]

Filed Under: CARNIVAL, UNION CASTLE LINE Tagged With: Carnival Cruises, cruise murders, Cruises, murder cruise, UNION CASTLE LINE

End Of An Era – The merchant fleets, passenger liners, diminished after the 1950s and 1960s.

April 12, 2009 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

End Of An Era – The merchant fleets – passenger liners – diminished after the 1950s and 1960s.

Passenger ships, flying European and American flags, such as the United States, France, QE 2, Rotterdam, Lurline, would soon be under foreign flags and served by foreign nationals. Stewards were no longer young Brits or Italians or French – but from Indonesia or the Philippines.

Lines such as American Export, Union-Castle, Orient, Italian Line, Swedish America – would be gone.

The once great merchant marine of Britain, America, France, Germany and Italy was over.

These are photos of British seamen taken during the heyday when the British merchant marine sailed the world.

The 1950’s and 60’s arguably saw the heyday of the world’s merchant fleets. [Read more...]

Filed Under: CUNARD LINE, STEAMSHIP LINES, UNION CASTLE LINE, UNITED STATES LINE Tagged With: cruise lines, cunard, merchant marine, ships, stewards, united states lines

CRUISE ABOARD A UNION CASTLE LINER TO SOUTH AFRICA IN THE EARLY 1960s…

January 30, 2009 By Michael L. Grace

Youtube video on the Union Castle Lines from the early 1960s…

The Union-Castle Line was a prominent shipping line that operated a fleet of passenger liners and freighters between Europe and Africa from 1900 to 1977.

The company originated as Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company, Ltd on 8 March 1900 with the merger of Union Line and Castle Shipping Line, with Castle Shipping Line taking over the fleet.

Union-Castle named most of their ships with the suffix “Castle” in their names. They were well known for the lavender hulled liners with black and red funnels, running on a rigid timetable between Southampton and Cape Town. Every Thursday at 4pm a Union-Castle Royal Mail Ship would leave Southampton bound for Cape Town. At the same time, a Union-Castle Royal Mail Ship would leave Cape Town bound for Southampton.